Bangladesh's Apparel Exports to the EU: Adapting to Competitiveness Challenges Following Graduation from Least Developed Country Status

This paper focuses on the EU market to analyse the potential implications of LDC graduation for Bangladesh's apparel exports. By using a partial equilibrium model, it estimates that discontinuing tariff preferences could lead to a potential export loss of more than US$1.6 billion. While the methodological approach employed in this paper has certain caveats, there is no denying that terminating duty-free access in the EU, resulting in a tariff hike of 9.6 per cent, will put serious pressure on Bangladesh's export competitiveness. This paper gathers several buyers and exporters' perceptions to provide insights into the issues and offers some broad recommendations to mitigate any adverse effects.